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Brady spent the next few weeks carrying out some maintenance on his home during the day and reading the binder which Judge Jefferson had given him in the afternoons, and then in the evenings, he would drink moonshine. He made it the way his Pops had taught him, he wanted to keep his last few alcohol bottles for special occasions.
He used his evening times to reflect upon the information he had disseminated earlier in the day. He only read a couple of pages at a time. Judge Jefferson had written out her findings in a dumbed-down way for Brady, but at times it still wasn’t dumb enough. In fairness to Brady, the deals’ descriptions were convoluted, no matter how much they were simplified.
The items in the binder which Brady gravitated back to repeatedly were the highly detailed maps and photographs of the Sattva Systems™ complex and the surrounding area of Boulder Creek. He knew he was preparing for a confrontation with Bodhi Sattva, it felt like his destiny. Any future battles with any part of the Green organisation would be played out with words and not actions. He tried to visualise the layout of the complex, but he reminded himself that this information could be up to twenty to thirty years out of date, maybe even longer when it came to the John Kane part of the investigation.
Sometimes, he would be aware of the Lopez family going about their business. He would strain to try and hear parts of their conversation, but even the slightest breeze seemed to blow their words away like smoke. They didn’t look over in Brady’s direction, and he felt that this was forced, as he was convinced, they were doing this deliberately to snub him.
He thought back to his big showdown with Lizzie, where he had outsmarted a teacher. He was focussed that day - he was also angry. This focussed anger was something he needed to feel if he was going to teach Bodhi Sattva a lesson. They under-estimate Brady Mahone at their peril.
He had often wondered about the differences between the crime bosses he came upon inside prison, and their foot-soldiers. The soldiers were always afraid of losing violent battles, whereas the bosses were forever afraid of being outplayed. Having information that they didn’t have - was a potent weapon. He knew it was vital that he knuckled down to his homework assignment before heading off to Boulder Creek. He also was aware that he needed to put his words and revelations in the correct order, so he began working on his delivery like a best man preparing a speech at a wedding.
He had photographs in the binder of the critical figures of the investigation, he looked hard at the last known portrait of John Kane and imagined his Pops garrotting him with a cheese wire. He had seen him before, of course, but there he was dressed in a Roman Emperor’s robe, and his face was covered in make-up - he wondered if John Kane was jealous of his wife’s acting career. He looked at the cute looking Governor of California, Genesis Garcia. Brady had paid so little attention to politics back then that he hadn’t been aware of her at all. Then he examined the photograph of Xavier Kane, the portrait photo was all fresh-faced and gleaming white teeth and a bald head. He still looked young. A more distant shot showed him to be athletically built, a near perfect human specimen.
At night, the vision of Bodhi Sattva filled his dreams. Bodhi perched on a golden throne peering down at Brady with contempt as Brady stumbled to get his words out in the right order, while John Kane, Genesis Garcia, Libby Skye and thousands of others laughed at the stupid, Brady Mahone who foolishly thought he could outsmart these giants of the liberal elite.
His days began to blend together with his routine of maintenance, reading, thinking and dreaming.
Then, on one rainy evening, he heard raised voices from the Lopez Ranch. This time he couldn’t make out the words because of the pattering of raindrops, but he could tell that this was one unholy row. He thought he could make out the sound of Amie crying, and Lucian and Mary-Lou shouting at each other, and even the sound of smashing crockery.
It then went quiet again, and he thought nothing of it, as he returned to his thoughts on the latest couple of pages of evidence he had analysed earlier in the day. It was a gruesome report on the discovery of many dead children in Pakistan. It was stamped, Top Secret - CIA. There were redacted passages where the names were obscured, but Judge Jefferson had pencilled in John Kane and other characters he hadn’t heard of before, but John Kane’s name was mentioned the most and was obviously the key player in the investigation. They had pictures attached with areas circled where they indicated puncture wounds, needle marks and cut-away skin rectangles. Some children had had their eyes surgically removed, and all of them had been sexually assaulted.
Even though Brady had heard the paedophile stories in his time in jail from his fellow inmates, this information still appalled him. Judge Jefferson had written a note for Brady:
These children were used as Guinea Pigs to develop their NanoSuits™. They used examples from all races to ensure they worked in all areas of the world. The FBI and the CIA were investigating child sex slave trafficking. They identified the link with John Kane, but they had no idea about the real purpose behind these child abductions.
Brady Mahone had no illusions about his own base nature, but this was beyond him. He would rather die himself than do this to a child and save his own skin. He thought back to when he set those children free from Small Hand Don, he remembered Angelique’s kiss on his cheek and recalled her smile of gratitude. I know I’m a bad guy, but these so-called pillars of society are worse than me. Always remember that when you are dealing with them. He repeated it as if it was essential to remember precisely who he was dealing with and what they were capable of. I ain’t the bad guy here - they are.
He then saw the Lopez family walking over toward him and his Ranch. Lucian was almost dragging Amie along with him, with Mary-Lou on the other side of him. They stopped at the edge of the NanoShell™ which now enveloped the Mahone ranch. This kept the Lopez family of Trads away from his home.
Lucian cried out, ‘Brady. We need to talk, man.’
Brady downed his moonshine and looked out balefully at his neighbours. He was at least grateful to be shaken out of his reverie on child abuse. He pulled his big frame up slowly out of his rocking chair and stood to his full height as if to use his body language to remind them they were dealing with a man of strength and power.
He paced slowly toward them and beyond the NanoShell™ to confront them. ‘You might need to talk, but I couldn’t care less if I never had to deal with you and your collection of ingrates for the rest of my life.’
Amie was cowering behind Lucian, but he pulled her forward, forcefully. She still had tears in her eyes, and she looked down at the floor, as she tried to keep from making eye contact with Brady. Lucian said, ‘Tell him.’
Amie said quietly, ‘I’m sorry.’
Brady laughed, ‘Hey bitch. I can’t hear you.’
Mary-Lou said, ‘She’s just a girl, Brady. You’ve no idea what it’s like to be brought up in this world. She has no friends of her own age - and never will.’
‘I do believe you called me a pervert. You never even gave me a chance to hear my side of the story. I’ve moved heaven and earth for you and yours, and you treat me like scum. Do you think I don’t hurt none?’
Amie’s cry sounded like an outburst from the depths of her soul, ‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I am ashamed and embarrassed about what I did that night.’ She lowered her voice and said again, ‘I’m so sorry.’ She burst into tears, and Mary-Lou moved to comfort her daughter. Mary-Lou said, ‘For what it’s worth, Brady, I’m sorry too.’
Brady didn’t know what else to say or do other than a nod in acknowledgement. He turned to Lucian, ‘I’m surprised at you, of all people, Lucky. All those times in prison where you complained that you were jailed for a crime you didn’t commit. Remember? How they shoulda investigated properly and all that shit. And then, here you are, accusing Brady Mahone of molesting your daughter, well, her daughter, technically.’ He pointed at Mary-Lou. ‘You never once defended me. You just up and took her word against mine. How long have we known each other, man? How could you think I would do that? You don’t think that Brady Mahone can’t get a bit of girlie action on his own when I’m on the road? You think I’d resort to taking advantage of a young girl who I considered as family? I would have done anything I could to help her. I would have got her anything - if it was available. I treated her like a daughter of my own.’
Brady’s shoulders slumped. Lucian said, ‘I know that. You are right. After everything you have done for us, we shouldn’t have treated you that way. It was wrong.’
Brady recalled how Lucian had saved his life in Ridgecrest but was damned if he was going to bring that up, now. He wasn’t going to water down their act of contrition by offsetting their shame, with this memory. ‘Ok. Apology accepted.’
Mary-Lou said, ‘What happens now?’
‘I can’t get rid of the Shell™, so you won’t be able to come over no more - and you won’t be able to use the barn. Not that that matters anyway as my business has dried up.’
She said, ‘How did the Shell™ get here?’
‘I left the building unoccupied for more than seven days, so it considered the Mahone Ranch to be deserted. I think if it was anybody but me living here, you would have seen the Operation Clean-Up crews come over and spray it into oblivion with their Green goo.’
‘Anybody but you?’
‘Yep. For good or ill, I seem to have become an honorary Green.’
‘Well, if we can’t come to you, then you’ll have to come to us. If you want to, of course.’
Brady felt relieved that one area of his life had returned to normal, and he had missed having friends. ‘I suppose so.’